Boingboing’s description doesn’t out and say it but it gives the impression that this is a new discovery: “A CT scan of a 1,000-year-old statue of Chinese Buddhist master master Liuquan revealed the mummy inside.” (emphasis mine)

Other “sources” are reporting this more hyperbolically, e.g. “Scientists shocked after CT scan of 1,000-year-old Buddha statue reveal mummified remains of meditating monk”

@pimlottc isn’t making this up. The link I saw from friends sharing on Facebook was titled “CT Scan of 1,000-Year-Old Buddha Statue Reveals Mummified Monk Hidden Inside” and the first sentence, which FB excerpted, reads “What looks like a traditional statue of Buddha dating back to the 11th or 12th century was recently revealed to be quite a bit more.”

It wasn’t until you clicked through that you could read that the info was known before. “Hidden” and “revealed” suggest something that was suddenly discovered.